Operation: Backtrack
by Yellow 13
Summary: We ALL know about the wars C&C fought. Now Supreme Commander Boris Romanov finds out some interesting facts about what was going on beneath the Iron Curtin. The first AlliedSoviet war is over, but the threat isn't defeated.
1. what is this?

Operation: Backtrack

Disclaimer: this work is purely fictitious and all characters are either property of the Author's imagination, or Westwood Studios and EA Games. Also, it should be noted that any resemblance to any real persons living or dead are purely coincidental. (Insert other legal mumbo-jumbo here.)

Supreme Commander Boris Romanov

North Korea

Monday, May 1, 2006

1755 hours

Jackboots crunched through the remains of the last Yeerk front in the country of North Korea. I felt that the Soviet Union was finally getting somewhere. Already, we had captured a universe that held key strategic value. Universe 0744681 (what we called Ace Combat.). Don't ask who creates these names; even **I** don't know the answer to that.) We sent a small recon team to the Border as well to investigate a reading that CABAL picked up. My own jackboots crunched on something; I looked down to see what it was, a picture taken some time ago. My heart almost stopped and my breath caught involuntarily in my own throat. For a moment, I couldn't do anything except look at the picture. A solder came over to me.

"Comrade Commander, are you okay?" he asked in a Korean accented voice.

I couldn't even answer. But I had regained the ability to move back a little. A few seconds later, I completely recovered from the state I was in.

"Comrade, are you all right?" the solider asked again.

"Da, da. I'm fine," I answered. "But I think I had better take this with me." I held up the photograph.

"As you wish, Comrade Commander." He replied.

I stared at the picture again. There where people of different nationalities. Some where sitting, some where crouching while others where standing. They all had different flags in their hands. The Union Jack, Stars and Stripes, the Maple Leaf, the Hammer and Sickle, as well as the French, Chinese, German, Cuban, Libyan, and the Iraqi flag. The photograph was old. It had finished the yellowing process, and was beginning to show some signs of deterioration, but I could still make out who all these people where. All of them where still alive and well. In fact most of them where in high places and had even bigger connections. All except one, the young woman in the center holding the Russian Hammer and Sickle. She was my sister, Natasha Romanov.

Supreme Commander Boris Romanov

Tuesday, May 2, 2006

Outside Vladivostok, Russia

1050 hours

I banged on the door repeatedly waiting for my sister to come out. It then occurred to me that since we're family, I could just enter. Plus, I had a "Master Key" as the Americans call it. But I didn't get the chance. Natasha came out, dressed in a bathrobe, her shoulder-long dark brown hair still wet and clumping together, the Tiberium crystals glinting in the morning light. She looked surprised at the unannounced arrival of me.

"Oh, hello Boris," she said. "Is there a problem?"

"Nyet. Well… actually there is. I was wondering if you could explain this to me." I said in my most non-threatening voice as I held up the old photograph. She looked at it and something seemed to light up inside her. She laughed. "I remember this. Good times. But where did you find this?" she asked.

"North Korea in the rubble of a--" I stopped, deciding if I should let her in on the new war I was fighting. Natasha got into a bad mood whenever I mentioned I would be going off to fight. It was part of the reason we haven't seen each other in a while. "It's not safe for me to discuss that out here. Can I come in?" I gestured at the room.

She looked at me strangely, but then decided to let me in. I then explained the situation to her including my most recent visit to North Korea.

"Well, I thought it was some kind of war… you have that look in your eye that says that you recently killed someone…" how the hell did she know this? Even since the second Great War, she knew when I had seen some gruesome combat… how did she know?

"So," I said. "Are you going to tell me the story behind that photograph? They say a picture is worth a thousand words, but I'm not getting even half that out of this."

"Okay, I'll tell you." She said. "But it's a long story."

I shrugged. "I have some paperwork, but nothing that can't wait a few weeks."

She smiled. "It won't take that long, I'm afraid. I know how much you love the desk part of your job." She joked. We both knew I hated it, but it was nice to laugh together again.

"It all started during the Second Great War," she began.


	2. the battle begins

Chapter two

Author's note: the parts of this story with **bold text** are Boris Romanov talking much like what happens in various flashbacks you see in movies or TV shows the _italic text_ is Natasha Romanov.

Natasha Romanov

Zurich, Switzerland

Friday, September 8, 1945

1200 hours

**Why where you at that boarding School in Switzerland, again?**

_Because our parents didn't want me to see any of the war, so they shipped me off to a neutral country._

I was sitting under a tree, doing some math exercises that my teacher had given to me, when something blue caught my eye. It was in the deep foliage underbrush. I yanked it out, stumbled backwards, and landed on my back. I examined it, a cube of some sort, it had strange markings on it, and it was about the size of my fist.

**I remember you sending me a letter about that. Did you find out what it was?**

_Yes, but that's not until later in the story though. _

"Hey, Natasha! Need some help with that?" a Chinese accented voice said. I turned, it was T'ing Leang.

"Oh hello Leang," I said.

"Do you need some help with that? I don't think it's wise to put that box into your binder."

"Why not?" I asked, but too soon. The binder fell out of my hands, papers flying everywhere.

Leang laughed. "THAT'S why." She said and started to help me pick up the papers. She picked up the cube, held it for a while, and then handed it back to me. We got the notes arranged like I wanted them to, and Leang left.

I saw some rustling in the nearby bushes; I got up and walked over to the foliage and a dark grey and black Siberian husky dog stepped out. I searched for a name, while the dog seemed friendly enough. I found a name, "Chitzkoi"

"Well Chitzkoi, let's see if we can't find your owner, da?" I started to pet him, and he went limp for a few seconds, and then I took him to the local dog pound. Someone must have picked him up a few days later, probably because of the posters I put up.

Saturday, September 9, 1945

0250 hours

There was a light-night movie on the television, plus, it was Friday, so I decided to stay up late and watch it. But before the movie came the news, which I always watched to see how the war was going.

"In world news," the anchor began "the People's Republic of China, Korea, and Vietnam have captured Japan, and are now moving on to the Hawaiian and Solomon Islands. In the Middle East, fighting has intensified as the countries are fighting to become the dominate power. Iraq, Iran, Syria, Palestine, and Libya are fighting against Turkey, Egypt, Israel, Saudi Arabia and the western portion of India (Pakistan). Over in North America, Prime Minister Mackenzie King of Canada had declared war on Russia and her allies four days after Prime Minister Winston Churchill of Britain. The United States of America's president Roosevelt has decided that the US will not get involved in the war. In Africa, civil war continues, but it seems that Britain will withdraw her troops because of the war. That's all the news for this hour; join us at nine for War Watch."

Most of that broadcast was true; however, some parts had either been fabricated, or where inaccurate. Japan did not get attacked yet as a freak typhoon appeared and sank the invasion fleets, China was only sending supplies to Russia and not actually involved in the war. The part about the Middle East was true; they wanted to finish what disagreements they had to later join the Allies or Soviets. The part about Canada and the United States was also true, Canada had gained independence from Britain and to prove it, they declared war after the British did.

The movie came on; it was one of those new horror movies from Hollywood. (Keep in mind that this is 1945, so this is what we would consider the classics) this particular one was about the Wolf Man. When it was over, I was still a little jumpy and the post-horror thoughts still lingered in my system. I saw the full moon outside, remembering the movie. I felt an itching sensation across my hands. I started to scratch it, but it didn't go away, it only intensified and spread across my arms. I looked down, and saw that they where sprouting fur. I saw my fingers curl up into the paws of a dog, and I realised that the fur colour was the exact same as Chitzkoi's. I fell over, and tried to undress myself, but that was quite difficult as I now had paws instead of hands. I heard a sharp CRACK! As my face started to push out and form a muzzle and replace my teeth with more canine teeth. My vision dimmed and went black-and-white, while my hearing and sense of smell heightened considerably. My spine was next to follow the change. I felt the end of my spine start to push out into a tail, and my balance was thrown out of whack again. Within a few minuets, I was Chitzkoi.

I heard a banging on the door to my hotel room. "HEY! I THOUGHT I SAID NO DOGS! I'm Allergic to 'um!" oh shit. My roommate, Alexis Alexander. I started pacing the room, desperately trying to think of something, when she came in.

I stared growling and foaming at the mouth. Pretending to be a vicious, rabid attack dog. Alexis tried to calm me down like anyone else would, but didn't leave, so I tried barking and I even jumped at her. She screamed, turned, ran, and slammed the door just as I reached it. I slammed into the door, and fell to the ground. I got up, and started thinking about what to do now. _Okay Natasha, think, if you became this by thinking about werewolves, then maybe thinking about your human body might reverse this. _I tried it, and surprisingly, it worked. I got dressed, and ran downstairs to where Alexis was.

"Natasha, where were you?" she asked "there was a dog in our room. It tried to attack me!"

"Wow!" I said, pretending it was news to me. "Really? Well, maybe he's gone now, come on."

"Well, alright, but if he's still there, you're gonna have to fight him off."

"Okay," I said, and grabbed a broom. "Let's go."

We went back up to the room, I opened the door slightly, broom ready, then quickly shot through the doorframe. The room was empty, but there was some blood from when I hit the door.

"It's all right," I said "the dog's gone. Must have jumped out the window."

"Okay!" she called from outside. "Well, I don't know about you, but I've had enough excitement for one night. I'm going to bed."

"Da, me too. Goodnight." And with that, we went to sleep.

Saturday, September 9, 1945

0900 hours

I work up, groggy like I always do when I don't get enough sleep. I got up, got dressed, and had something to eat as well as some of what Alexis had offered me. She called it "Pepsi" it was way too sweet for my taste, but it got me to wake up a bit more. Then I went outside into the cool morning air. When I got to a mountain trail I liked, I saw numerous Swiss Police officers around the nearby hospital. I ran over to one of them and asked in German "What happened here?"

"Some moron brought a Snow Leopard here and it went berserk." He answered. "Scared the living daylights out of the late-night Janitor and some doctors then ran away."

"How's it get into here in the first place?"

"That's what we're trying to find out, also a patient is missing."

"Who was it?"

"There was no ID on her, but she was Chinese, and suffered almost fatal injuries while fighting another leopard."

I was silent for a moment. I knew for a fact that more snow leopards where making their home on the mountains, and it was getting unsafe to travel anymore. _Good thing it was just one_. I thought. Then, I decided against hiking for the day.

"Thank you for your time," I said and left.

I went to an indoor swimming pool, paid the fee, and went in. I saw Leang there and went to her.

"Hey, Leang, did you hear about the snow leopard in a hospital?" I asked.

"Umm… Yeah… listen, did anything weird happen to you last night?"

I decided not to tell her about my transformation and said "no,"

"Well, I know this sounds crazy, I don't even believe it myself, but last night, I was that snow leopard in the hospital."

Boris Romanov

Tuesday, May 2, 2006

Outside Vladivostok, Russia

1300 hours

"What? That's it? I thought you said it would take longer!" I said in disbelief that Natasha ended her story there.

"No, it's not over, it's only the beginning. I cannot give you the complete story. No one person can. It will be more like a quest gathering fragments of information to form a complete picture."

"Terrific… so now who do I talk to?" I asked.

"AAAA General T'ing "Tigress" Leang. I'll come with you if you want." She said.

"Very well. Let's go"

Wednesday, May 3, 2006

Base Dragon, Tibet/China Border

1600 hours

The Su-32 me and my sister where in was now over Base Dragon. When the radar technicians asked for identification, I said over the radio, "This is Supreme Commander Boris Romanov. Requesting clearance to land. Over."

"Permission granted, Comrade Commander, you are cleared to land on runway 0-5. Over."

"Do you know what you're doing?" my sister asked from my right side.

"I have flown almost every plane ever made. This is nothing." I said.

We landed and stepped out of the plane.

"Now remember, follow me, don't touch anything, and try not to talk to anyone. You are a guest here."

We got to Leang's Command Center, and walked in. we kept moving until we reached her office. Seeing as that I technically outranked her, I walked right it. She was busy sorting through many government papers and files when she looked up to see who came in.

"Oh! Comrade Commander! If I had known you where coming-" she stopped when she saw Natasha. "He knows?" she asked after a long silence.

"Da, he found the photograph." Natasha said.

Leang smiled. "I wondered when this day would come. But personally, I thought it was going to be sooner."

"Can we continue with this, please?" I asked.

"Very well," Leang began. "It all started at the beginning of the Second Great War."

End of Chapter two.


	3. the Gathering Storm

Chapter three

T'ing Leang

Friday, 9, 1945

Zurich, Switzerland

1200 hours

I was making my way around the track-and-field area of the school. I saw Natasha Romanov trying to place a box of some kind in to her binder. I went over to her and tried to help.

**Yes, Natasha told me about this part already. **

_Really? Oh well. I'll just skip to when I first morphed._

Since I didn't have any afternoon classes, I went for a little hike in the Swiss Alps. I heard of, and disregarded the rumors about increased Snow Leopard population, and started my hike. Besides, if I gave the Leopards their space, they wouldn't attack me. I reached the top of Schnebelhorn (the highest point in Zurich.) when the sun started to dip lower. I was around a third of the way down the mountain when I was ambushed by a Snow Leopard. He pounced on me, and I went down, my face hitting a rock and scraping back some of the skin and breaking my nose. I managed to get onto my back before the leopard got up. He pounced again, slamming me down onto my back, snapping my right arm in several places. I tried, futilely, to get the cat off me, but it didn't work. The leopard was right on top of me now, raising a paw to come down hard on my sternum and kill me. I managed to get my good arm free, and hold the paw of the cat in a desperate attempt to stop the leopard from killing me. It went docile for a few seconds. I ran and grabbed a rock and proceeded to beat the cat to death with it. Then I limped down the hospital at the halfway point of the mountains, normally used for climbers who had accidents. A nurse came out when she saw me stumbling down the mountain.

"What happened?" she demanded.

"Uhhh… leopard… attack… barley got away… uhhh…" I passed out after that.

I woke up some time later in a dark room, probably on a hospital bed. I couldn't tell, it was dark, and the drugs they gave me where still fresh in my system. I started to remember the attack and remembering why I was here. I started to morph into the Snow Leopard, but I didn't notice at the time. My bones reset, the scars and stitches disappeared, and the electrodes they put on me to monitor my heart rate, breathing and vital signs came out. I was semi-awake now, and tried to put them back on. However, as I had paws now, not hands that was difficult. Eventually, I fell out of the bead and onto the floor. My vision adjusted and I could see a lot better now, but the drugs still gave a hazy and wobbly feel to it. A janitor came a few minuets later. He turned on the light, and screamed in terror at the sight of me. With my heightened sense of hearing, it was defining.

HEY! What is wrong with you? I asked, unaware that I was using telepathy. Listen, I'm fine now, do you know a way out of here? 

**How do I know this isn't an elaborate hoax?**

_I'll prove it to you later, Commander. Trust me._

He screamed again and ran away in a panicked state. I shock of the noise, and walked out. I got about halfway to the hotel, when I demorphed. I made my way back to the hotel stumbling frequently, and fell asleep.

Saturday, 10, 1945

0930 hours

I woke up when the hotel staff called my room with the wake-up call. I started reading the newspaper. The headline in the "Local" section said "Chinese Exchange Student Missing, Presumed Dead". I read that and became very confused at how a Snow Leopard got into the hospital and disappear without a trace. I also got to the section on the janitor's questioning, however, the police didn't believe him, as they smelled alcohol on his breath.

I remembered what had happened last night, and wondered how I got away from all that. Especially since I had broken bones, massive blood loss, and more then likely, a concussion. I checked myself in a mirror. Nothing. No broken bones, no claw marks, no scars, no bruises, nothing!

I started to think about the leopard, and about 30 seconds later, I was the cat. I thought about my human self and reversed the process.

"Well, this is very interesting…" I said to no one in particular.

I needed to tell someone about this. I got dressed, got something to eat, and left. I knew Natasha Romanov would be at the local health club.

**This is where Natasha left off. You told her that you turned into a Snow Leopard.**

_Well, since you know that, I'll skip to what was said after that._

"Well," she began, uneasily. "Just between us, I turned into a Siberian Husky last night."

"WHAT IN THE NAME OF GOD IS HAPPENING TO US?" I yelled.

"Not so loud!" she hissed. "What exactly happened?"

"Sorry," I said. And I began to retell my story.

She retold her story and I noticed that the only thing we had in common was that we both touched the cube.

"So," she said after a long silence. "Whatever this is, it seems to be thought based. That's how we're able to turn into the animals we touched."

"so what do we do now?" I asked.

"since I found the cube in the first place, I'll keep it in a safety deposit box in the Bank of Zurich. Nobody is going to be able to get it except for me."

"Good idea. I'll keep testing this ability out, maybe I'll find something else out about it."

So I started to test the morphing ability out. I tried acquiring other animals and morphing them, it worked.

Natasha Romanov

Zurich, Switzerland

Saturday, 10, 1945

0930 hours

I went back up to my hotel room to find and lock the blue cube away. I opened the drawer where I put it last, and it was missing!

I panicked and ransacked the room, thinking I misplaced it somewhere. I searched the room again, but I found nothing. I heard in my mind a few seconds later, hello? Natasha, can you hear this? I figured out how to talk while we are morphed. I just decided to call the process that. Also, it's defiantly thought-based. Hello? Can you hear me? I somehow knew it was Leang. That gave me an idea, if the process that Leang dubbed "Morphing" was thought-based, I could try it myself. I focused on Chikzoki again, and about 30 seconds later, I was the Siberian husky once again. I started sniffing the drawer, and now the thief's trail was laid out as if traffic cones had been placed on it. I started to follow the trail, dodging pedestrians and a few hotel staff until I got to the basement. I slowed down, and started to look around. (Not the easiest thing in the world to do in a dark place looking for a blue cube with colour-blindness.) But, my sense of smell kept pointing me in the right direction. I came to a dark grey (at least, that's what it looked like to me) I carefully pushed open the door and peaked inside. I heard someone, a female voice to be exact muttering. As I got closer, I heard "how do I take this thing apart? ACHOO! Dammit! Why am I sneezing so much? ACHOO!" shit. Alexis must have thought the cube was my science fair experiment. Well, I knew how to get her to give the cube back to me. I growled, she turned, and threw a screwdriver at me.

"GO FETCH!" she yelled. It bounced off my head, and I started barking. She grabbed the cube and threw it at me. I jumped up, grabbed the cube in my mouth and ran.

LEANG! We have a problem! Alexis got hold of the cube! I said, telepathically.

I ran back upstairs, through the main lobby, and out the front door. I went to where Leang was as quickly as I could. When I got there, she was just demorphing. But what surprised me was that she managed to figure out how to morph with some cloths on. I demorphed and got dressed, taking the cube out of my mouth I asked "How did you learn to morph clothing?"

"You just have to concentrate on yourself with clothing on. It only works on skin-tight cloths though." She explained.

I later went back up to my hotel room, where I saw Alexis dismantling something. She turned around when she heard the door open.

"Natasha, I swear I didn't find out what that cube was!" she began.

"It's all right, Alexis," I said. "That dog won't hurt you. If the authorities ever found out, I suspect I'll get deported!"

She looked up, apparently confused.

"what?" she asked. "are you some kind of werewolf or something?"

"Nyet, I don't even know what's happening to me, but that dog that ambushed you last night? That was me."

"also," Leang began. "did you hear about the Snow Leopard that broke into the hospital?"

"yeah…"

"that was I. Although, the news reports mixed up the fact that I was breaking OUT, not IN."

Leang and I both retold our stories, stopping when Alexis looked like she was about to pass out. Eventually, when we where finished, I went to the Depository Bank of Zurich, opened a long-term Safety Deposit Box, and placed the cube in it. I left, not knowing I was being watched.

In the middle of the night, someone must have snuck into the bank, stolen the deposit box, and left, all without ever being detected.

Boris Romanov

Base Dragon, Command Centre

China/Tibet Border

1500 hours

Natasha and Lang stopped, and I asked, "So now who do I talk to?"

"now, you talk to Hassassin Kassad. I believe you know him as "Prince Kassad."" Natasha said.


	4. Visitors?

Chapter Four

Author's note: thanks for the review Captain L, and the Animorphs copy is intentional, but where did you get Tom Clancy's books and Call of Duty from? This is about (in part at least.) Command and Conquer.

Boris Romanov

1830 hours

Undisclosed Location

Libya Desert

We moved to visit Prince Kassad, a GLA General and a very sneaky individual. We went to his main base (or at least, I THOUGHT it was his main base. He keeps changing them.) General Leang and I where moving through the base fairly easily, while Natasha kept bumping into buildings as she couldn't see them. (Leang and I often studied the base layout of all GLA Generals in case of a rebellion.)

"I see you've found us out, Commander." A middle-Eastern accented voice said from behind me. Leang and I turned, and saw Hassassin Kassad. Natasha, however, seemed to blunder into a SCUD Missile causing it to be set off a few seconds later. Kassad started yelling in Arabic at his troops telling them (wherever they where) to get back to work.

"Perhaps we should go into my Palace." He said after he got his troops back under control.

We went into his Palace, and Natasha was stunned at the decoration. Leang and me though, had seen it quite a lot during the GLA wars as they where now called. Normally, during those troubled times, I went to the legitimate governments asking for help to remove the GLA threat. The people I visited usually had royal palaces, and where quite well decorated. I normally didn't care much for GLA Palaces (in point of fact I usually blew them up…) we went to a secluded area of the Palace, Kassad never likes to be near windows, and he said, "So Commander, how did you find out about us?"

In silent reply, I showed him the photograph. He grinned, and said, "Well, as you know I am heavily involved in criminal activities. The wars where no exception."

Saturday, 10, 1945

Prince Kassad

0445 hours

Zurich Switzerland

Black Market outpost

I was walking through the Black Market, looking for someone who would buy the cube I had. So far, the highest offer I got was only 50 Euros. I kept trying, but that's all I got. Eventually, I decided that it wasn't worth the trouble, and just return the cube to its rightful owner. I put it in the Russian Embassy with a note signed "A Friend." Making it seem like I found the person who stole it, and returning it, in exchange for a finder's fee. Then, I started to make my way towards the Zoo. I walked through it for a while, being careful of security cameras and other detection methods. Eventually, I couldn't decide on what to acquire, plus, people would be around soon -it was almost opening time- so I decided to leave. I then disappeared into the city.

Sunday, 11, 1945

Natasha Romanov

1050 Hours

Zurich, Switzerland

Russian Embassy

Since the normal mail service didn't run on Sundays, (and because most of my mail was sent via the Russian Embassy) I went there to pick up my weekly mail. There was the usual, a military-issue Survival Pack from my brother (one .45 Caliber Automatic handgun with two boxes of ammunition, four days emergency rations, $100 dollars in Rubles, $100 dollars in gold, etc.) letters from my father, (the Soviet Union head General at the time.) and various things from my mother. (Usually news of the war, books, food, and some money in case I needed It.). But today, there was something else. A package with a note attached to it. I read it; it said, "Hello ma'am, I understand you're looking for this. I found the person that stole it, and he's taken care of. Now, I DO expect some kind of reward for this, however it doesn't have to be too much. Signed, A Friend."

I opened the package, and to my relief, the blue cube was there. One of the guards asked in Russian, "What is that?"

"Just a gift I got when I was young." I lied, but the Guard seemed to buy it.

I went back to the hotel, and told Leang and Alexis about the news.

"So, I guess leaving it in the safety deposit box is out of the question." Alexis said. "Maybe we should leave it in the forest somewhere."

"Nyet, no. It's too dangerous. Someone could stumble across it, or glimpse it out of the corner of their eye as I did. I think we should leave it with the Komitet Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosti." I said.

"The what?"

"The KGB," I said. "Russian Internal Security. Not unlike your FBI, NSA or CIA."

"That's the first place anyone would look for it." Leang said. "Perhaps you should leave it with someone you trust. Your brother, per say."

"No, I don't want him getting involved. Plus, he is already fighting a war. If we let him know about this, there is the possibility we'll get pulled INTO that war."

"Well, while you two argue about this, I have a job interview to get to. See you later." Alexis said then left.

I sat down, and turned on the Television to a news report.

"In world news," the anchor began. "The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics has been pushed out of Canada and Alaska by the Canadians themselves."

_The Canadians pushed us out of Canada and Alaska? _I thought_. How did THAT happen? _

"Natasha!" Leang called. "Let's go get some fresh air. I have a feeling that today's going to be one of those days."

"Oh, I was already about to go." I said. "My Brother is on leave for a few days and he's decide to visit me. You want to meet him?" I asked.

Leang smiled. "Okay, let's meet your brother."

1550 hours

Airport

My brother's plane was at least an hour late when it finally came in.

"Flight 326 has now arrived." The PA said in German.

I got up and walked towards the Customs Gate. Boris was answering the Officials questions, and later walked out to collect his luggage.

"So," he began. "This is Switzerland." He looked around, obviously looking for me. I went behind him.

"Boo." I said. He spun in alarm and faced me. He smiled and hugged me, a little too tightly I might add.

"Boris, want to let up a bit?" I asked, trying to breathe. He let me go, and I caught my breath again. We went to a bench and sat down. Leang joined us a few seconds later, evidently lost in the airport.

"Who's your friend?" Boris asked.

Leang held out her hand, and said: "T'ing Leang." She said, wincing slightly at my brother's grip.

"A pleasure to meet you, T'ing."

"Likewise, but can just call me "Leang". Everyone else does."

"Okay, Leang." He said. "Does anyone know a good restaurant here in Zurich? That flight has made me hungry."

The three of us went to one of the many coffee shops in Zurich. Leang and I ordered our usual- a small cup of tea and a croissant- while my brother had a medium coffee and a bagel.

"So Boris," Leang began. "How is the war going?"

"So far, so good. We've taken over Germany and now we're moving onto France. On the eastern front, we're trying to take Japan, but it's so far slow going due to those blasted typhoons."

I gave Leang a look.

"What? If she wants to know about how things are going, then I have no qualms of telling her." Boris said.

We later finished our snack, and went to the hotel. I showed Boris around the room, and told him that I had a roommate. He said that he had no problems with that, and that he'd sleep on the floor for the time he was here. Eventually, Alexis came back from her job interview.

"Hey, Natasha! I got the job!" she hollered.

My brother gave her a look and said, "excuse me miss, but do you have the right hotel room?"

Alexis gave my brother a look (partly to decipher his accent.) and said, "Who's your friend, tash?"

"Alexis Alexander, meet Boris Romanov, my brother." I said.

"Ah… so this is the guy I've heard so much about." She held out her hand. "Nice to meet you."

"Likewise."

We then spent the next few hours listening to Boris's war stories. Some about air engagements, some about front-line combat, some urban warfare, and some stories about being on submarines.

"So then, I decided that my Sparrow missiles where ineffective. I went to the two sidewinders, got a lock, and fired. They traced the plane and destroyed it." He concluded his latest air battle.

"Wow," Alexis said. "So that's what an air battle is really like?"

"Da, it is very fast up there. Very easy to get killed."

Eventually, I got him to start some hand-to-hand combat training with us. It went fairly well, up until Alexis got thrown for her fifth time, then she just gave up. (I'll admit, I was getting tired of being thrown as well, but I managed to throw him a few times.) Leang was also not very good to start with, but she quickly improved. In fact, she even managed to throw him a few times.

After a few hours of learning some survival tricks from Boris (such as lessening the effects of torture, general wilderness survival skills, and some first aid training.) we decided that that was enough for today.

End of chapter four.


	5. A day at the zoo

Chapter five

Alexis Alexander

Zurich, Switzerland

0500 Hours

Monday, 12, 1945

I was woken up by a beeping sound. I'm a bit of a light sleeper, so I got up and saw that it 5:00 AM. I heard some swearing in Russian, and I managed to understand a bit of it. (Having a roommate that's Russian can really help you understand the language.) It wasn't Natasha; she was still asleep. It was her brother, Boris.

I heard Natasha wake up soon afterwards, and they both started talking in rapid-fire Russian. I couldn't understand a single word of it, and went into the kitchen to make breakfast. After a while, I heard some slight sobbing from Natasha's room and went to investigate.

I opened her door, and Boris was packing up his stuff. He looked at me and said: "I'm sorry, Alexis, but I have been called in early from leave. I need to go now. It was nice meeting you."

Natasha was still sobbing a little, and I started to comfort her. I had no idea what it was like to lose, or possibly lose a brother or sibling because I was an only child, but I did my best. Eventually, she calmed down, and we both went to school.

It was a boring walk to a boring place, especially considering what we could do now. Once we got there, we spent the next few hours learning things that we'd probably forget in a few hours, and we'd never find use for them anyways.

At lunch, Natasha, Leang, and I sat together, talking about what to do with this new ability we all now shared. We didn't worry too much about anybody overhearing because we where all speaking in English, and only a few non-American/Canadian/British students knew more then a few words of it.

I had jokingly made the suggestion that we go into show business with this thing, but that Leang and Natasha quickly shot down idea. I seemed to be the only one who thought that was funny. Leang suggested that we try and find out if the 'morphing' ability was good for use on all kinds of creatures, not just a cat or a dog.

I pointed out that I was volunteering for a job in the local Zoo, so I'd be able to find out. I heard no objections from either of them, so when we where let out of school, I walked in, and asked for a volunteer job.

The Zookeeper thought about that carefully, then agreed, I guess because of the war, all the men where going off to fight and that just left the women to fill the jobs. He started to train me in handling the various tranquilizers, in case I had to give the animal a check-up, and he also showed me how to ward off attacks from certain animals like alligators.

It was about 7:00 PM when I went for my first real job in the zoo: feed the sharks. On one of the breaks I had, I spent the whole thing simply looking at the sharks swimming around in their enclosures. They had all kinds: Makos, Hammerheads, Angels, Tigers, Blue sharks, whitetip Reefs, a couple of Basking sharks, and one Great White.

Now, unlike most people, I'm not ignorant when it comes to sharks. I actually think they're kind of cool, and I know for a fact that only a handful of them are actually dangerous to humans, but, one look at that Great White swimming around sent waves of awe and fear through me.

I put on a SCUBA suit and put on a protective chain mail suit on top of hat in case it got curious and wanted to taste me to see what I was. Great Whites are like that: most shark attacks are mostly from the shark taking a 'test-bite' to figure out what it's about to eat. In fact, more people have been killed by dog attacks then Great White attacks in the past hundred years.

Anyways, after putting on the protective gear, I was handed a stick with a bit of meat on one end of it that I was to use so the sharks wouldn't bite my hand by accident. I dove in, and the first shark to come towards me for a feeding was the Great White. It made me nervous, but it swam almost lazily around me, waiting for me to feed it. I held the stick with the meat on the end of it ready, and the shark simply swam up to me and grabbed it!

It was so close, I could actually reach out and touch it, and so that's what I did. I took off one of the chain mail gloves, and pressed my hand against its snout. The shark went docile for a moment, then continued eating, and finally swam away.

The White Tip Reef sharks and Tiger sharks started swimming around me now, each waiting to be fed now that the Great White was gone. I fed them all, and them put on a bit of a performance for the visitors of feeding the rest of the sharks by hand now that the dangerous ones where full.

Well, actually, that's what I was going to do anyways. The blue sharks and the Makos aren't too dangerous because their mouths are so small that they couldn't eat me in only one or two bites.

Once I fed all the sharks, I came up and got out of the tank. Once my breathing mask was off, I asked: "How was that?"

The zookeeper nodded and said: "Good work, Alexis, and I must say; I admire your courage. Not many people, especially first-time employees, would go and feed the sharks alone."

I smiled all the way to the dressing room where I took of the SCUBA suit, dried off, and got dressed again. Once I got out, I had another job to do: help the staff give a Bald Eagle a checkup.

Once I got there, I saw that the eagle was sitting on one of the bird keeper's arms. I went closer, and said that I was here to help these guys with the checkup. I asked if I could touch him and they said: "She, Trish here is a female. And sure, you can touch her. Just don't touch her beak. She doesn't like that."

I stroked the eagle's head, and I heard a cooing sound as I acquired her DNA. Once I was finished, she turned her head, and nibbled my finger. It didn't hurt at all, more like what I said it was: a nibble. I laughed slightly, and the bird keeper said: "wow, Alexis, you must have a way with animals or something. I've never seen Trish warm up to someone that fast. I think you two are going to be good friends here."

Once I was finished for the day, I went back to the hotel and Natasha asked: "where were you, Alexis? Weren't we supposed to study together this evening?"

Oh, yeah, I forgot about that. "Oh, sorry Natasha, I managed to get a volunteer job at the Zoo. I completely forgot about that. I'll make it up to you though, I promise."

She was satisfied with that, and went to watch the news. Not the local news, though, she had no interest in what was happening in Zurich. She was watching something on the War. She was watching to make sure her brother was still alive and well.

She watched all the news reports before going to sleep. She hadn't seen her brother on any of them when they showed the causalities, so I guess to her, that was good enough.


	6. Infested?

Chapter six

Natasha Romanov

Zurich, Switzerland

0814 Hours Local

I hate Mondays. Always have, and always will. But this particular Monday was made even worse that Boris ad been called out from leave almost a full week ahead of time to go in and fight again. On my way from school, I walked completely alone. There where still things I needed to do in school, so I couldn't just disappear for a few days.

Alexis tried to insist that I take a few days off, but I didn't listen. She eventually gave up, and left ahead of me. I kept watching the news reports until I had to leave, thinking I was going to see my brother killed, but it never happened. In fact, they never showed him, or if they did, they all looked the same in uniform.

Once I left, I walked towards the school. I was passing the alleyway between tow building when somebody grabbed me, and hauled me in. I tired to scream, but another hand covered my mouth. I tried to fight, but the three guys where just too strong for me to fight.

I didn't manage to see their faces, but I heard them laughing. What were they going to do with me? One of them grabbed my head and rammed against a wall. After that, I blacked out.

I came too in a very dark room, with a very big headache. I rose slowly to my feet, but because it was so dark, I couldn't see anything. There was nothing, not even the glow from the other side of the door… wherever it was. I could guess that I was underground or at least inside one of the two buildings that those three guys had ambushed me in.

I took hesitant steps forwards, hands reaching out in front of me, so I could feel along the wall when I found it. When I did, I followed it, making a slow circuit around the room. It was all metal, and there was no sign of a door that I could detect.

I kept following the wall until kicked something, hard. I yelped in surprise and pain, and went down. I tried feeling around, seeing if I had injured it, but my foot felt no different. I reached forward, groping in the dark to see what I had slammed my foot against, and my left hand slipped and sank into something warm, and liquid.

Yelping again, I pulled my arm back, and I felt several slimy somethings advancing up my arm. I quickly flung them off, and I heard them land with a 'splat!' somewhere to the left of me.

After what seemed like hours sitting next to the tank of… whatever it was, the door opened, and I was blinded as the light was switched on. When I could see again, I saw something that looked partly like a blue horse.

It had the lower body of a horse, and the upper body of a human, almost like a centaur. Its face didn't have a mouth, and it looked completely flat. The nose was only two horizontal slits. Above it's head, there where two… well, I guess the closest thing I had ever seen to them would be the eye stalks on a slug. On the end of its fairly long tail, it had a sharp blade on the end of it.

Without uttering a single word, it wiped its tail through the air so fast, my eyes couldn't track it; and within microseconds, it was on my neck. I tried not to breath, fearing that if I did, the blade would sever my jugular vain.

It started to speak into my mind in almost the same way as Leang did when she was testing out the morphing ability, but this 'voice' chilled me right down to the very core of my being.

So, I've finally captured one of the Andalite Bandits. I could swear I saw a smile on its face. Tell me where the others are, and I MAY let you live. 

"I-I-I don't know what you're talking about!" I managed to stammer.

You're lying. No matter, really. One way or another, I WILL find the rest of you. Tell me now, or I will have to get… CREATIVE."

I couldn't talk. I moved my mouth, but no sound came out. Eventually, the thing just finished off by 'saying' Process her. 

Two more people walked into the room, they grabbed me and I tried to fight back, but again, they where simple too strong. They grabbed my arms, and put them into some harness-like thing near the edge of the liquid vat, now looking like liquid metal. I tried to kick out, to scream, to plead with them to let me go, but they were having none of it. One of the guys grabbed my head, and thrust it down into the pool.

_Oh God! _I thought, panic flooding my brain. _They're going to drown me! I can't fight them! No! NO!! _

Then, something touched my right ear. I started thrashing, trying to get it off, but it squirmed in, and I felt my ear go numb. I could still feel it there, but this was impossible! Nothing from Earth could do that! It continued to push it's way through, and I felt parts of my body go numb. First, my legs stopped kicking, then, my arms stopped trying to break the restraints, then, my chest relaxed.

I screamed as loud as I could, until seconds later, I lost control of my head to.

I tried to fight for control over my body again, but I felt nothing. No matter what I tried, I was… well; I didn't know what I was. Trapped, I guess. Eventually, my head was lifted out of the liquid and my voice said: "Would you let me up, please? This is rather uncomfortable."

_IMPOSSIBLE!! _I thought madly. _I didn't say that! What the HELL is going on!?_

The two people unstrapped me, and I tried to hit one of them in the face, or crotch, or ANYTHING, but I couldn't do anything! I felt my memories being accessed, one by one. I tried to seal off my mind, but I couldn't do that either!

Once whatever this thing was, was finished, my voice said: "Azalel 263445 of the Gault Pool reporting for duty, Visser."

_WHAT!?! _I roared in my head. _THAT'S NOT MY NAME! _

_SHUT UP, HUMAN! _A voice snapped. _You are my host now. There's nothing you can do. _

Report, the Visser, whatever that was, said coolly.

"I have accessed this creature's memories, and it appears that this one is human. In fact, this human is native to this universe, and to this time period."

Go on, 

"It seems that this human found the morphing cube and activated it. So far, she only has one morph: a Siberian Husky dog. Two of her other friends also have the morphing power, but neither of them has anything that would be what the Andalite Bandits. However…" She (for some reason, I could tell it was a she) accessed the memories of my brother again. "This human had a brother in the Soviet Union Military as well as a father who is a General. Perhaps they could become useful to use in the future."

Excellent, very well, my orders: go to wherever your host usually is at this time, and wait for further instruction. There are a few other Controllers around this pathetic city, and I will inform each and every one of them about your new host. 

"Yes Visser, I understand. It seems at this time, my host is usually in school. May I have a ride to there?"

Certainly, now go. I'll call on you when I need you. 

before I, er… WE left anywhere, she took a few seconds to dry what was once my hair from all the sludge in that pool, and clean herself off before getting into a car and having a driver take her to school. From anyone's perspective, it would look like nothing had happened. I also knew what that blue deer/horse thing was. He was Visser Three, the only Yeerk to ever inhabit an Andalite body. He was this Yeerk's Commanding Officer.

She took my body to the school, and all the way there, I fought, trying to do something, ANYTHING, but it was useless. When I/we got to school, it was about 11:30 AM. Almost time for lunch, but that would mean I'd see Alexis and Leang. I didn't want to spy on my friends, but there was nothing I could do!

Before my math class was over, I fought as hard as I possibly could, but all I succeeded in doing was getting the Yeerk to say: "Excuse me sir, but may I go to the bathroom?"

The teacher nodded, gave her the hall pass and went into the bathroom. She spoke out loud for my benefit.

"Look, human, let me just say this as clearly as I can: you CANNOT beat me. I have taken over your body. Do you understand? It's pointless to fight me, you cannot win. and just in case you're wondering, I can act exactly like you, so no one will notice the difference. Do you hear me human? You've lost, accept your defeat and stop bothering me!"

after that, she/we left the bathroom and went for lunch. she got what was, only a few seconds ago, my lunch, and went to join Alexis and Leang. When she caught up with them, she said: "I'm sorry I'm late. There was a car accident of some kind, and I was at the police station giving my take on what happened."

Alexis stopped eating her apple, and said: "you're still all right though? I mean, if you're feeling bad about that on top of your brother going off again, I'll cover for you."

"No, no there's no need for—"

"Okay, okay, I'm just saying is all."

Damn, this slug was REALLY effective at getting my friends to believe that everything was normal. I wanted to scream, I wanted to fight, I wanted my control back, but deep down, I knew that it was impossible.

I went into a corner of my mind and started to cry. It was over for me. There was no way I could fight, or do anything. Then a chilling thought hit me: the morphing Cube! Where was it? I heard Azalel laughing.

Don't worry, human. She said. I'll find it eventually. Just you watch. 


	7. Planning the next move

Chapter seven

Alexis Alexander

Zurich, Switzerland

1245 Hours Local

There was something… different about Natasha today. At first, I didn't know what it was, but it WAS obvious to anyone who cared to look.

Her face twitched a couple of times, and it seemed that for no reason at all, she punched the table, decided if she should pull her hand back, and then did. In class, she mashed her pencil onto her paper so hard, it broke, and she had to get up and re-sharpen it.

Once classes were over for the day, I, as usual, walked alongside with her back to the hotel.

"Hey Tash," I said, "It seemed like you weren't all there in class today. What happened? Are you all right?"

"Oh, I'm fine, Alexis. It's just a nervous tick I get when I'm nervous." Strange… it seemed as though she had a slight hint of a German accent in her voice.

"What made you nervous?"

"I was… kidnapped before school began, and I barely managed to get away."

"Whoa! You REALLY need to take the day off now, Tash. Having your brother go back to the War is bad enough, but THIS?"

"Look Alex, I'll be fine, don't worry so much about me. If I were you though, I'd watch my back."

Okay, something was definitely wrong. NOBODY called me 'Alex' if they knew what was good for them. I may look weak, looks can be deceiving. Somebody called me 'Alex', I usually hit them so hard, and they didn't remember what happened. The only thing they COULD recall was that they had been in a fight.

But Natasha was my roommate and Best Friend! She should have known better! I let it go this time by saying: "Don't call me 'Alex'." She apologized, and her accent was back to its usual Russian tone.

Once we got back to the hotel, I told Natasha that I needed some homework help from Leang, and went to her hotel room alone.

Knocking on the door, I saw that Kassad was already there as well, and I fell back a couple of steps, but I got over it, and said: "Who are you?"

He smiled, and said: "My name is Kassad. I was the one who stole the cube, and I also have the powers you have. I've been watching you, but don't worry; I won't harm you in any way."

I glared at him, and then said to Leang: "Have you noticed Natasha acting weird lately? Because a few minutes ago, she called me 'Alex', and during class, she seemed a little… weird."

"Weird? How so?"

"Well, for one thing, she got kidnapped, and she didn't decide to go back to the hotel and take the day off, even AFTER her brother left for the war again. There was also the time in class where she'd twitch suddenly, and then pretend as though nothing had happened."

"And she did seem a bit irritated sometimes, didn't she?" Leang said, then 'hmm'ed. She thought for a second, then said: "Kassad, can you follow Natasha and see what's going on with her? Although, don't let her see you. Can you do that?"

He laughed and said: "can I follow her without being seen? Please, does the desert have sand? Of course I can!" and with that, he left the room… by going out the window.

Now, before I met Kassad, I would have thought that was insane, but now… well, I went to the window to make sure he was all right, and I saw him actually climbing down the outside of the multi-story hotel by using the mortar space in the brickwork and being aided by some kind of micro-repel device of some kind.

I lost sight of him shortly afterwards as his clothes seemed to blend into the night.

Three days later

Natasha Romanov

Yeerk Pool

0445 Hours Local

She needed to feed, and before we went to the Yeerk Pool, she told me exactly what I'd see, and hear down there. She still hadn't found where I had hidden the Morphing cube though, which was a good thing, but I didn't know how long that would last. She kept assuring me that she'd find it, but I had the feeling that somebody moved it on me, and didn't bother to tell me about it.

Once I/we got to the Yeerk Pool, she steered my head around to look at all the sights in this underground chasm. There were people, and aliens alike in cages while Taxxons, massive centipede-like worms, moving around, expanding the Pool, along with the heavy machinery, and the screams… those still haunt me to this day.

Azalel laughed at my helplessness, and said telepathically: So, what do you think of my home, human? Do you like it? 

Go to hell, you foul worm! I shot back, now fully aware that there was nothing I could do.

Defiant to the end, are we? she sneered. You must realise that there's no hope you anymore. I've taken over your body, and soon your species will fall. 

You need to feed every three days, so as far as I'm concerned, that's all the hope I'll need. 

She scoffed, and went up the ramp for her feeding. Two guards grabbed me, and forced me down, my head in the sludge, and she plopped out of my ear, and started to feed. The second she was out, I was back in control, but even freed from the Yeerk, I STILL couldn't do anything! The alien guards were simply too strong for me to fight against.

I was thrown in a cage, just like everybody else, and I sat there, crying. After I while, I heard in my head: sorry Natasha, but you're one of THEM now. it sounded like Leang! I looked around, but all I saw was off in the distance near an entrance was a flash of white fur, and then she was gone. Leaving me alone. All alone.

Nobody to rescue me, nobody to help me, nobody to pull me out of the nightmare I was in. I continued to cry even as I was dragged out of the cage and reinfested. Once she was back in control, I heard: so, human, did you miss me? Oh, no wait! Don't answer that! I'll just search your memories and see for myself! 

And she did. Just because she COULD. Once she was finished, she laughed at me again, got my body cleaned up from the sludge, and made her way back up to the surface.

Once she was there, she was about to go out of the main building (cleverly disguised as a community center or something) but just as she was leaving, she heard: "excuse me miss, you aren't by any chance Natasha Romanov, General Alexander Romanov's daughter?"

She turned, saw three people who looked to be quite strong, and said: "Da, that's me."

The three moved so suddenly that neither I nor she could react, and by the time we fully knew what was happening, the foul taste of chloroform covered my/her tongue, and she was knocked out.

I was still around, more or less, but even with her gone, I still couldn't do anything. The last thing I saw before her eyes closed was the Silver Eagle insignia that identified the leader as a Colonel of the Allied Special Forces division. Probably US Navy SEALs from their build and speed.


	8. Captured

T'ing Leang

Zurich, Switzerland

0815 Hours Local

Alexis and I waited outside the school for Natasha to show up. We had already discussed what we'd do, and now we just had to wait for her to show up. We were going to grab her and let Kassad take her to be interrogated. It gave me a rotten feeling in my gut, but I knew there was no other way. Eventually, after she didn't show up, I got even more worried. After the bell rung, we met up in the hallway.

"She didn't show up," I said. "Do you think she's on to us?"

Alexis shrugged. "Not sure, but we better let Kassad know, just in case. Oh, and before I forget, did you move that blue cube?"

I nodded. "Right to where you said. It's safe."

I had given it to Kassad for safekeeping, and seeing as though he could seemingly disappear of the face of the earth, it'd be safe with him. We both went to our classes, and eventually, it became clear that Natasha wasn't coming. At lunch, I met up with her again outside.

"Alexis, did you even SEE Natasha today? Was she in your hotel room?"

She thought for a few seconds, and then slowly shook her head. "No… now that I think about it, no, she wasn't. I know you said she left that… pool thing, but maybe something must have happened after that."

I nodded, as I ate my sandwich. As I ate, I started to think of the possibilities that could have happened. Natasha was the daughter of Alexander Romanov, and that might have been why she was in Zurich to begin with, but Switzerland was neutral. It couldn't have been the Soviets or any of their allies because they were too far away to do anything. The Allies weren't likely to do this either. They respected the neutrality of Switzerland, and taking one hostage, even with her connections would have no strategic value whatsoever, unless…

My mouth fell open as I realized what must have happened. Alexis saw this, and asked: "What's wrong?"

"I think I know what happened to Natasha. Come on! We need to go, NOW!" I packed my lunch back into my bag and took off running. Alexis had to sprint to keep up with me.

"Wait up!" she yelled. "What's going on? What happened!?"

I stopped long enough to explain. "Remember when the two of you first met?"

She nodded.

"I don't know how it was with you, but when me and her first met, she told me why she was here in the first place. Being here would make her safe as she would be a prime target for any kind of attack or hostage situation anywhere else."

She looked confused. "Yeah? So? She told me that to, I don't see what this has to do with—"

"What if a Special Forces managed to infiltrate Switzerland and steal her out of the country? The Soviets would be obligated to stop fighting and actually try and work something out to get her back."

She shook her head. "Dammit Leang, maybe I'm having a blond moment or something, but I'm not following you."

"I don't know what a 'blond moment' is, but, what I'm saying is that with her seeming to disappear of the face of the Earth, I think she's been taken prisoner. And the only country that I can think of that would do something like that is the United States. Germany's been taken over, France is pre-occupied with trying to slow down the Soviet advance, South Korea is too far away, and Britain is busy with sending reinforcements into France. The way I see it, the United States is the only country that might be able to pull this off."

"But the US is also neutral!" she exclaimed. "hey said they wouldn't get involved!"

I let out an exasperated sigh. "You haven't been watching the news? Japan just attacked and severally damaged the Pearl Harbor base in Hawaii. This has actually forced the US to declare war on both Russia and it's allies."

Alexis looked stunned at what I said. As far as she knew, Japan and the US were allies. I must admit, it was a bit of a shock to me as well, but there it was. I started running again, and Alexis kept pace with me. I didn't care that I'd probably get in trouble for this, and Alexis was usually in trouble for something or other, and her friend was being held somewhere by the US Special Forces.

When we got back to our Hotel, Kassad was waiting there for us. When he saw us, he said: "Why weren't you there to ambush Natasha? I waited for a pretty long time you know."

I bit my lip and told him about what I thought was going on. He didn't seem to show any emotion at all. "I thought I saw some Navy SEALS crawling around… I just thought they were on a break or something…"

"Did you see where they went?" Alexis asked.

He shook his head. "No, but I bet I can find out. Wanna come with me?"

We both nodded, and pretty soon, we were on our way out of the city. If my hunch was right, whoever took Natasha wouldn't stay in the city. They'd leave for probably the front lines of battle in an abandoned building that they would use as a shield. Since we couldn't get to the front lines on foot, and because the Border Patrols would forbid us, we needed to fly over it as birds.

Alexis already had a bird morph, so Kassad and I needed one too, and probably something that didn't make us seem like prey to a Bald Eagle. Alexis led us back to the zoo, and I acquired a hawk of some kind. Kassad acquired an eagle. Now, I wasn't too good with identifying bird types, so at the time, I didn't know what either of us had.

After we morphed, we spent a few minuets learning how to fly until we finally got it right, and a while after that, we spread out so that we wouldn't look like a birdwatcher's dream come true. Eventually, we were over the border, but now, the hard stuff began. Since we didn't know what country Natasha was taken to, that could be a problem. We had the option of France, Germany, and a fair amount of other countries. Making a decision mostly based on a guess, I said that we should all go to France first.

Natasha Romanov

Undisclosed Location

1516 Hours Local

I couldn't get up. The yeerk wasn't awake yet, and being fused with my brain, that made her susceptible to drugs more then I was. When she did wake up, she opened my eyes and looked around. There was nothing really interesting to see: I/we were in a dark room with cold stone floors and plaster walls. The ceiling at one point was probably tiled, but most of them had come loose or were removed exposing the pipe work of the above floor to me.

She sighed aloud and asked: _so, human, make yourself useful for once. Where are we?_

I don't know. Probably somewhere close to the front lines, but your guess is a good as mine at this point.

_That's just peachy!_ Came the irritated reply. She rose up, but a wave of nausea hit us both and she went back down. She started puking shortly afterwards too. Once that was finished, she got up again, albeit slower this time, and made her way to the bars that were erected to make a cell of some kind. When my/her vision adjusted enough so we could see, there was a Navy SEAL sitting on a chair in a darkened corner of the room. When he saw that I was awake, he walked over and stopped just out of range of my/her arms.

"Well missy, it's good to see you're awake. Now, we're just going to leave you there until we get some payment for your ransom, and in the meantime, nobody'll attack us. Does that seem fair? Yeah, I think so too. Now," he took out something, although I couldn't really see what it was. "Smile for the camera!"

The flash went off, and for a few seconds, we couldn't see. When we could see again, the SEAL had gone and I was left alone with her. She grabbed onto the bars and started to shake, trying to force them open or something. I sighed in the corner of my mind.

_You'll never be able to get out of this place. _I said to her. _Those bars are solid, and even if you do somehow brake out, you'll be shot on-sight. All we con do now is wait, and hope the ransom comes._

_What do you mean by that? _She snapped.

_Chances are, if they don't get the money soon enough, they'll probably kill us anyways. Or move us, but if they do, you'll probably do something stupid and get us killed._

_Shut up, human! I'll think of something._

I laughed at that, and went into silence. With her in my head, it was as close to sleeping as I could possibly get. She kept pounding on the bars, and eventually she was shocked by a stun gun. I felt the jolt and yelped in surprise, mostly because I didn't feel the pain, but more by the fact that they'd actually do something like that.

As I/we were recovering from the bolt, two of our captors stepped in, picked me up, and transported me to the back corner of the room. Eventually, some food was brought in by a pair of guards. The one in the front had the food, and the other one stood outside the cell with an M-16 pointed at me/us. I understood the logic in that. If she jumped the first guard, that's be useless. He had no weapons to steal.

She made a dash for the food as soon as the cell door was closed and started eating. There wasn't too much there, just a chaser of water and two stale pieces of bread. She ate both pieces of bread, and gulped down the water.

_Who's the prisoner now?_ I muttered to no one in particular.

_What was that?_ She asked, somewhat confused at my statement.

_I was just wondering which one of us is the prisoner now. Me because you're in my brain, or you for being here in this cell._

She sighed. _I suppose we're both prisoners, human._

_I have a name, you know. It's Natasha Romanov. _

She chuckled at that, and curled up on the floor. I assumed she was trying to get some sleep, so I tried to peek into her dreams to see what I could see. She was blind, but she knew where she was. Firing some echolocation, she found her new host's head submerged under the water of the yeerk pool. After she squeezed up into her host's brain, she opened her new eyes. She could see for the first time in her life, and that was just the beginning. Her entire being was alive with touch, taste, smell, hearing, all the senses that her host took for granted.

I pulled out of her dream, and said nothing about it. Maybe we weren't that different after all. All the yeerks wanted was the right to experience all the things that we took for granted. In the corner of my mind, I smiled. Maybe through this new revelation, I could get her to let me go. After all, nearly every creature on the planet had all of the five senses.


	9. Rescued

Chapter Nine

Alexis Alexander

Northern Austria

0200 Hours Local

After almost three whole days of searching, we still found nothing, and more then once, we had even gotten shot at when we demorphed and started walking around. I seemed to get the most of it, being an American, and Kassad also has his share of bullets thrown his way, being a criminal. Leang had also gotten shot at a few times too, but mostly I think that was because the Asian people look very similar to non-Asians. I guess they mistook her for a South Korean or Japanese.

We were now flying on the way to the last place we considered looking: Austria. I tried to tune out the negativity I was hearing from Leang, and focused on scanning the ground. It was tough, mostly because eagles and hawks have better eyesight during the daytime. At night, we only had as good eyesight as a human did. Leang continued to complain about not having found Natasha yet, and even suggested more then a few times that we stop looking for her.

Kassad either didn't have an opinion about this, or didn't voice it. Which was fine by me, although I wanted somebody to talk to besides telling Leang to shut up. A few hours later I was getting fed up with her, and I even yelled out: _Fine! You want to go home!? Go! I'm going to find my friend with or without you, so if you don't like this, leave! If you want to stay, shut up! Got it!? _

Leang went dead silent after that, and I was fuming over her stubbornness when I saw something. I dived down to investigate and if I had a mouth instead of a beak, I would have smiled.

_ Guys! _I called out, all my anger lost. _ I found her! Grey building, almost no blast damage! Get your tails over here now! _

I landed on the window frame and tried to break the closed window by pecking it. Natasha was sleeping, but she woke up after i broke the window. She didn't look to good, as though she hadn't set foot in a bath for days. The others landed near me, and I broke more of the glass so I could step in without slicing my feet open on broken glass. Once that was done, I swooped in, and landed gracefully on the floor beyond her reach from where she was.

She seemed terrified, and I almost laughed. In my human form, I wasn't very intimidating. I was more the girl you don't talk to because you know what she COULD do to you if you did. I wasn't a bully, I was just anti-social.

Anyways, after a while, the others swooped in and I demorphed. When I was human again, I grabbed Natasha by the wrist without saying a word. She tried resisting me, but I jabbed my thumb down hard onto the underside of her arm, where it met her wrist. She gasped in pain, and I quickly went behind her and forced her arm up onto her back.

After the little incident in Germany, I asked Kassad for tips on how to defend myself. He showed me all kinds of pressure points, and various other moves I could use against somebody. I eased up slightly on Natasha's arm, but not enough for her to squirm away.

"It's over, Natasha." I said, coldly into her ear. "Whoever or whatever you're working with stops NOW. I'm gonna hand you over to Kassad, and he's gonna ask you a few questions. Answer them, and you get to live. If not… well, me and Leang will be waiting outside this building. Get my drift?"

She nodded, slowly, and I gave her to Kassad who was finishing his demorphing. As I was passing her over to him, she suddenly screamed in pain! I reflexively let go, and swore.

"What did you do!?" Kassad yelled angrily.

"Nothing! I was holding her exactly like you said!"

Leang was already morphing into a snow leopard in case things started to get nasty. Natasha held her ear and was now on the ground writhing in pain. Eventually something slimy came wriggling out of it, and she stopped screaming and threw it with all her strength. It landed against the farthest wall with a sickening 'splat!' and she rose to her feet.

Once she managed to recover enough to think straight, she said: "you have a way out of here, right?"

"Working on that!" I yelled as I threw myself against the cell door. It held, and I tried to think of something else. Leang finished her morph and lunged at the door much faster then I did, and with more of a running start. She rammed the door full force, and managed to break the lock or whatever was holding it shut. We ran out, and I jumped on one of the Navy SEALs. While I simply didn't have enough mass to keep him down, I did knock him down and I started squeezing his windpipe. When he stopped moving, I took his gun, and knocked the side of his head with it to make sure he'd stay down. By the time we were out, the SEALs started chasing us, but we eventually lost them in the war-devastated streets.

Natasha was still breathing hard even when we were clearly safe, and I tried to get her to relax. She was shaking like a leaf, while I checked her over for any visible signs of injury. There were none, and I held her hand while I spoke softly to her.

"Natasha, it's okay. You're safe now. We weren't going to hurt you; we just wanted to know what made you go with those… things in Switzerland."

I pretended not to notice the shocked look from Leang, while I ordered Kassad to find a medical kit or something. He nodded and took off, blending into the night. After a while, her breathing steadied and she stopped shaking and fell silent. Kassad returned a while later with a medical kit as well as something that looked suspiciously like a pigeon.

"I stunned it by throwing a rock at it," he said, as if to explain why he was holding the bird. He let handed it to Natasha and waited for her to acquire it. She did, and before we all morphed, I said to her: "Whenever you want to tell me what happened to you… I'm here."

Natasha nodded and slowly morphed. Once she was finished, she took off, and after we were finished morphing as well, we followed her. Somehow, she seemed to be very good at navigating in the dark, although I suspected that Kassad had somehow managed to find a homing pigeon for her.

Once we were back in Zurich, we went back to where we were supposed to be, and got about three hours of sleep before the hotels' wake-up call rang. Groaning, I let Natasha take the first shower. She deserved it, after going through… whatever it was that she went through. Once she came out of the bathroom, she looked A LOT better. Almost like her old self, but there was a sort of haunted look behind her eyes. It took me a while to recognize where I saw that before, and then I remembered. Natasha's brother, Boris had that same look when he talked about the front lines.

After I freshened up, I saw Natasha was starting to panic again. I held her hand, and she turned alarmed at that. I just smiled, and reassured her that she was okay. Natasha calmed down, and sat down at the table.

"Alexis…" she began. "I have to tell you something. It's about what happened to me."

I nodded, and held her hand again as she explained what happened to her. How she stayed behind, got kidnapped, infested and ultimately head hostage before we rescued her. I passed her a box of tissues in case she needed it, and when she was finished, she fell silent again.

"Look 'Tash," I said, gently. "I really think you should stay here today. You've earned it."

"No, I-I-I don't want to be alone right now. Please, stay with me, if you're going."

"Come on," I said. "Let's go to school together. We'll watch each other's backs, and then there's Leang there to add an extra set of eyes."

Natasha nodded, and after we ate, we went to school. Our teachers gave us hell for disappearing for three days, and threatened to call our parents if something like this ever happened again.

At lunchtime, Natasha told Leang what had happened to her, and what she knew of the Yeerks. Apparently, they had a missive feeding pool directly below us. She said that it would be fairly easy to destroy it without damaging the city above; all we needed was the right tools. Namely dynamite or some other kind of powerful explosive.

"Great plan, 'Tash," I said. "Although in case you haven't noticed, we're in a neutral country. Where are we gonna find that kind of stuff here?"

Leang seemed to smile for some reason. I glanced over to her. "What's up?"

"I think I know how we can do this," Leang said. And she began to explain her plan. I had to admit, it was daring, simple, more then likely suicidal, and it was just crazy enough to work.


	10. Victory for now

Chapter Ten

Natasha Romanov

Under Zurich, Switzerland

2230 Hours Local

I was taking Leang, Alexis and Kassad down to the Yeerk pool. However each of them had on them several pounds of C3 Explosive. Kassad had somehow managed to buy it from the Black Market in Zurich and he said after he gave it to us that there would be no questions asked. For the sake of convenience, we spent the rest of the week preparing for it, and we would finalize our plans on Friday afternoon, and we had agreed to attack on Saturday night.

Anyways, our plan was to go in and have me cause a lot of chaos by firing indiscriminately at just about everything. Using that chaos, the Yeerk Pool guards would be too distracted to worry about the others who were planting the C3 everywhere. After they all planted it, they'd run, let me know by firing a signal flare (Black Market, no questions asked) and I'd run and detonate the explosives. The c3 was just enough so it wouldn't damage the city above, but it would cause massive, if not terminal damage to the pool.

Once we were in, I stole a dracon beam laser from a storehouse, set it to maximum power, let the others go, and started firing. The laser fired and vaporised several of the guards closest to the pool. As I was firing to provide the distraction, I must have hit some kind of unstable chemical storehouse causing it to go up in flames and knocking everyone that was close to it away like a toy. Secondary explosions started erupting as the surrounding areas began exploding too, adding their contents to the conflagration. Shrieks of terror rose up from several places at once, and I fired at the cages where the people were being kept. Hopefully, I could save a few of them before the entire place was blown sky high. The cage doors melted off, and the people inside charged out, and ran out of the pool complex. Weather they knew what was about to happen or not was irrelevant. They just needed to RUN.

I adjusted my aim and fired on another storage shed. This one exploded with a massive explosion that sent the construction vehicles nearby it to blow away as though some kid had thrown them away. Somebody grabbed me from behind, as I fired. The shot went wild and hit the ceiling, causing a small rockslide to occur right on the Yeerk Pool killing a fair amount of them by crushing their bodies. I managed to get loose from my attacker, and before I even thought about what I was doing, I fired.

My opponent wan none other then the guy that dragged me down here in the first place. His eyes went wide as a clean hold was burned right through his chest. I took my gaze off him, and saw the flare rising swiftly before it crashed into the roof and came down. _Time to go. _I thought as I armed the detonator. The others came back to my location a few seconds later, and we all ran like hell for the exit.

Even though there was no danger to us because the explosives weren't timed, we still wanted to get outside as fast as possible so the Yeerks wouldn't discover the little present we left for them. Eventually, we were outside, and I mashed the detonator button down as hard as I could. The ground beneath us shook violently less then a second later, and several windows were shattered in the tremor. I threw the detonator down on the ground and stomped on it. While that was unnecessary, because the explosives were all used up, I still didn't want to have the local cops to come and arrest me.

The next day, there were two REALLY big stories that hit the news that day. The first one was the small earthquake that had struck the city in the middle of the night. The other one was that the War was over. The Allied Forces had attacked Moscow with a new type of weapon that seemed to consist of teleporting. The Allied Generals were standing in front of a podium, talking to the world.

"The Soviet Union has been defeated by the superior might of us, the Allied Forces. Accordingly, we order all Soviet units to lower their weapons, and cease fighting. Joseph Stalin has been killed, as well as several other high-ranking officers in the Kremlin. Any other Soviet Military personnel who have not surrendered will be captured and tried as soon as they can be found.

"Furthermore, to ensure this never happens again, we, the representatives of each of the Allied Forces, declare that Alexander Romanov will be the new Premier of the Soviet Union. In addition, the Soviet Military must downgrade itself, in accordance with the war-end agreement."

Thunderous applause followed, and the Generals walked off the podium. Another person came up to it, and said in Russian: "Ladies and Gentlemen, Premier Alexander Romanov of the USSR." He walked off, only to be replaced by my father shortly afterwards.

More applause followed, and he raised his hands waiting until the noise subsided.

"Comrades," he began. "This is the dawn of a new era for Soviet people! As my first act as Premier, I officially appoint my son, Boris Romanov to the rank of Comrade General." My mouth dropped open at that, and I missed some of what was being said.

"Secondly, I appoint myself an advisor." My father said as another man walked onto the stage. He had some kind of metallic device implanted into his head, three symbols tattooed there, and he was also bald. "This is my Advisor Yuri Zhilkin." The crowd cheered again, and Yuri walked off the stage.

My father went through a list more of people to appoint in various positions before he finally concluded and walked off. The crowd went wild at that, and didn't subside for a long time. When it did, Alexis looked at me, with perhaps a trace of sadness in her blue eyes.

"So this is it then? Now that the War's over, will we see each other again?"

I nodded. "Probably. And if not, I'll keep in touch. And who knows? Maybe someday we'll both have the freedom to go wherever we please."

"Yeah… well, I gotta get my stuff together. You'd better do the same."

I nodded and we went into the bedroom. As I was packing up, I asked: "What about the Morphing Cube?" Alexis looked confused as I said that. "The blue cube thing, where did you put it? The Yeerks didn't get it, so you must still have it."

Alexis laughed. "Don't worry, it's perfectly safe." She said as she pulled it out from what looked like a hidden drawer in the dresser. She passed it to me, and said: "here. You should keep it, seeing as though you found it in the first place."

I accepted it, and stared at it for a while. Strange… this one thing brought me closer to Alexis then I would have thought possible. The same with Leang. I didn't know her too well either, and the same with Kassad. I smiled as I put the cube in with the rest of my luggage. When we were finished, we hugged each other, said our goodbyes and went to help Leang with her stuff in the next room. We hugged and said our goodbyes again, and left for the airport.

I was going to miss Switzerland. Good food, plenty of friendly people, good friendships made… as I waited on the bench in the waiting area for the plane, Alexis put something into my pocket. I was about to see what it was, when she said: "when you're on the plane, okay? I gotta keep my image up here."

I nodded, and passed her a binder that was full of paper. It was something I was writing in my spare time. I hadn't got a chance to finish it yet, and I explained that to her. It was purely fiction of course. A German named Adolf Hitler rose from obscurity and managed to take over most of the world with the help of Imperial Japan. Together, they were almost unstoppable, and they were even moving to attack Russia and Britain. The British, with the help of the Americans and their allies managed to pull together and launch a surprise assault on Normandy. It was an assault code-named 'D-Day'. After that… well, I didn't manage to get any further. I probably would have had those allies break through and see the German atrocities.

Anyways, Alexis thanked me for that, but I didn't have anything to give Leang. Although, on the fly, I thought of something. A bracelet that I had bought here in Zurich. I liked the design, so I had bought it. I gave it to Leang without a moment's hesitation, and she gave me a hand-crafted model of a Chinese dragon. It looked like she must have made this in pottery class or something, but it was still exquisite. The model was about as long as my middle finger, and it screamed of the time and care that went into making it.

"I don't know what to say, Leang. This is just so beautiful. Thank you."

She nodded, and she was called to her flight. We each gave her one last goodbye hug and watched as she left onto the gate ant out of sight. Alexis and I were called onto different flights at the same time. We exchanged hugs, said our final goodbyes and went to catch our flights.

After I went through customs, and was let onto the plane, I waited until I was airborne before I read Alexis' message.

"_Dear Natasha, _

_I know that we didn't get along when we first, met, but for that, I apologize. I don't tend to get along with people that well, and even back home in Maine, I don't have many friends. Although, with you… we seemed to just click. I never had a best friend before, but now… I know what it feels like to have one. You warmed my heart up from an ice block to something words can't begin to describe. I love you as a sister, and when I get back to the U.S., I'm going to write to you everyday. If it's not too much to ask, I'd like to ask you to do the same. _

_Yours truly, Alexis Alexander._

_P.S.: if your brother starts giving you a hard time or whatever, punch him in the throat. That'll bring him down nice and quick. XOXOX"_

I nearly broke into tears as I read that. Too bad there was no way for me to write anything to her right now. My pens and pencils were in with my luggage, and I didn't have any paper at the moment… I would find a way to meet up with Alexis again. I was sure of it. The same with Kassad and Leang. Eventually, we'd all meet up again. Although, as I looked out the window, I couldn't help but wonder: did we really stop the Yeerk invasion? Or did we just put it on hold temporarily? Well, if they did decide to come back, we'd be the ones to greet them at the door.


	11. Invasion? NOW!

Chapter Eleven

Author's Note: this is more then likely going to be my longest story ever as I have A LOT of C&C Games to go through. Although, if it helps, think of this as Part II in the overall story. For things like Red Alert 2 and Yuri's Revenge, I'll merge those into one part instead of having one for each. One last note, I'll also be including Generals into this. (Hence Alexis Alexander, Leang, and Prince Kassad.)

Supreme Commander Romanov

Undisclosed Location

Libyan Desert

Present day

1010 Hours Local

I gave the three people in the room a look. Why did they simply stop there?

"Well, what happened next?" I asked, pushing them to continue.

Natasha smiled. "Now, you have to talk to General Alexander. She has the next piece of the story."

"Wonderful…" I muttered as we strode out onto Prince Kassad's base. We managed to find our way out of that mess, and next we went to Maine, in the United States. We got there via aircraft carrier, and then have a Nighthawk helicopter transport take us the rest of the way. When we approached the US Coastline, two F-22A 'Raptors' from General Alexander's base went up to meet us in flight to determine if we were hostile of friendly. The two combat aircraft flashed past us so fast that the sonic boom put turbulence in our path, forcing the pilot to correct and not slam into the ground. The fighters circled around and the pilot talked with them on the radio for a while. Eventually, the fighters went into escort us until we landed.

When we did land, we all got out, ducking to avid the still-turning rotor blades. The nearby personnel saluted me and Leang as we disembarked. Natasha was largely ignored, and Kassad was given several glares. After the helicopter finished powering down, I walked into Alexis' Office. She looked up from the papers on her desk and looked behind me, seeing Leang, Kassad and Natasha. She waved us in, and before sitting down, she said: "So, he found us out, eh 'Tash?"

Natasha nodded, and explained how I found out what exactly happened, and where I was at in the story. When I was finished, Alexis leaned back in her chair. "Personally, Commander, I thought you'd find out about this a little sooner, especially with Yuri and his troops crawling around your base in the second Allied/Soviet war."

I sat down on the couch that faced her desk. "I'm waiting for the continuation of this story."

General Alexander laughed. "Always straight to business, huh? All right. since you guys seemed to blaze through the first Allied/Soviet War without me, the next part of our story takes place 25 years later, at the start of the Second Allied/Soviet war and a little into the Yuri War."

Alexis Alexander

July, 1970

Maine, United States

1200 Hours Local

I was reading the latest letter from Natasha. Even though it had been several years since we met, we still kept us this inane letter-writing. I also kept in touch with T'ing Leang, and Prince Kassad, although their replies were slower. Probably because Leang lived in China which checked all letters before sending them to their final destination and Kassad… well, he was nearly impossible to find. He didn't stay in one place long enough for my letters to reach him, and even then, I had a hard time finding out his address. Natasha seemed to be my fastest correspondent because she had apparently pulled some strings with her father and that allowed her to have her letters come in with only about a week of delay.

_Dear, Alexis_ the letter began.

_Sometimes, I don't know what's happening with Russia anymore. My brother keeps getting promoted and my father seems to think that all Americans are the source of all our problems. I tried to talk with him, but he keeps insisting that what he's doing is for the best. He's planning something with the help of Yuri, but I can't listen in. At least, not yet. I haven't tried using 'it' yet, but I'll see if that works. I doubt it though. Yuri is too good at finding out where I am. I think he's a psychic, but I can't be too sure. At least, not yet. I asked my father about him several times, but he doesn't seem to listen. Sigh, maybe I'm just being paranoid, but I'd still recommend you stay on your guard. Maybe 'they' will make another appearance. I don't know. I just thought our victory in Zurich was a little too easy, don't you agree?_

_Well, I look forward to seeing you again, Alexis. Maybe after this whole situation dies down, we can meet up in Zurich, just like old times._

_Yours truly, Natasha Romanov_

This didn't sound too good. Although that seemed a bit contradictory with what the news reports were saying about Russia; nothing at all. There were no tensions, no problems, no battles in the UN, no nothing. Although maybe I was overreacting. After all, the Allies had put Alexander Romanov in charge of the Soviet Union for one reason: all he wanted was peace and well-being to his citizens. He had said this himself in several press conferences. As for this Yuri fellow being a psychic… I dismissed that as a rumour Natasha picked up somewhere.

Besides, I just couldn't pack up and leave for Russia. for one thing, while I was old enough to get away from my parents, I wasn't old enough to fly anywhere. Secondly, I didn't have enough money to just leave like that, and thirdly, I didn't have a passport or any kind of paperwork that would let me go to other countries… at least legally. I had the Morphing ability, and I still used it from time to time, but I couldn't exactly cross an entire ocean and the entire country of Europe in under two hours.

I sighed and went to look out at the ocean. My apartment, while not huge, at least had an ocean view, so I liked it and I stayed there, despite the enormous cost of rent. (Well, it was enormous for me at the time.) As I stared out at the ocean, I thought I saw something in the sky. I focused on that single dark smudge on the horizon, and eventually, I saw more of them. Several other black smudges also formed on the ocean surface, and soon the sky and sea were packed with black smudges.

i kept staring at those things until they got closer. They were probably pretty big, and they were also very slow. Not taking my eyes off the things, I turned on the TV and listened to it. there was a story about somebody's dog attacking a large wolf of some kind, but eventually, that was cancelled out and a new story must have broke the news.

"This just in," the anchor said, slightly worried. "The Soviet Union has launched a massive strike pushing up through Texas from Mexico. Additionally, Soviet aircraft are converging on our country from all directions. We ask that you please remain calm, and do not leave your homes."

I looked back to the window in fear and sure enough, those things on the horizon had came close enough so I could actually see them: large blimps with what looked like bombs on their undersides, and ships that had two large missiles on them as well as several smaller things including submarines, and what looked like a monster come to life: a giant squid came out of the water, grabbing a ship, and pulling it under the ocean. I ran to the door and tore like hell trying to get out of the building before all hell broke loose. I managed to get outside just before the Soviet's tanks started going through the city. These ones looked pretty big, had two barrels, two sets of rocket pods, and they looked a bit similar to their old Mammoth tanks, although these ones were clearly different.

I ducked into an alley and tried to hide amongst all the other junk that was here. the tanks didn't seem to notice me as they drove past the alleyway, but I think a dog must have smelt me because I heard barking from somewhere nearby. I started sneezing a few seconds later, although I tried to hold it in. if I sneezed, I was done for, most likely. Seeing no other choice, I began morphing into the Bald Eagle I had acquired in Switzerland.

I started changing slowly, although by the time I was done, the dog had rounded the corner. I beat my wings to take off, but it was slow in coming because there weren't any thermals or anything to help me. Eventually though, I did and I managed to get off the ground before the dog tore at me. When I was airborne, I looked around and tried to see what was going on. A Soviet MCV was driving slowly though the town, looking for a relatively safe spot to deploy. When it selected on, it deployed and started making the Soviet's first foothold on US territory.

I was getting panicked now. Where was the air raid siren? Where were the nuclear missiles? What happened to our MAD (Mutually Assured Destruction) policy? Where was the Air Force? How could nobody see this coming!?

I looked around sharply, trying to see if I could see any sign of the US forces, or any other Allied troops for that matter, but… no. nothing. Cursing, I flew off to try and find some place that wasn't swarming with Soviet troops. I had already been shot at by them, and I didn't really want to have that done again.

Eventually, after I traveled a good few miles, I landed and demorphed. I kept cursing myself because of my inability to do anything. The Soviets had struck too quickly for us to do anything… although, maybe there was one thing I could try. After a while of walking through wilderness for a while, I eventually came across another city. This was a farily small one, and a doubt it was even on the map, but it was there nonetheless. I walked in and managed to get a pair of shoes and some decent clothes from a shop. (in the end, I had to punch the guy out and take the stuff out the back.)

Once I got my main problem taken care of, I went to find a phone or something similar I could use. I found a phone booth and dialled for the operator. At first, I thought the call center would have been overrun by the Soviet forces, but it was surprisingly still working.

"How may I direct your call?" the operator asked.

"Long-distance, please, the Alexander Romanov's residence."

There was no response for a while, and I bet the operator found me to be insane for wanting to call the leader of the Soviet invasion, but eventually, he put me thorough, and I quickly went to the best Russian accent I could possibly manage when the line was picked up.

"Da, Natasha Romanov here." the voice on the other end said.

_Finally! A break! _I thought relieved.

"Natasha" I said, instantly losing my accent. "What the hell is going on over there!? I'm seeing tanks, ships, blimps with bombs, and shit-loads of other Soviet forces trampling on my home state! I thought you said it was probably nothing in your letter!"

Natasha was surprised for a minute. Maybe from me actually calling her, maybe from hearing my voice again, maybe from what I was saying, or maybe a combination of the three.

"Alexis? Is that you?" she finally said at last.

"No, it's Santa Clause! Of course it's me! WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON OVER THERE!?" I yelled again. I was getting glances from the local cops, but I didn't particularly care.

"I don't know! My father and brother didn't say a thing about this to me! Why would they!? Anyways, it's not safe for you to be there anymore. See if you can't find a way into Canada. That would probably be the safest place for you right now. I'll meet you there in a few days."

"Thanks, although what about Leang and Kassad?"

"I'll call them myself, and tell them the exact same thing. Although… I think we're going to need more people to help us with the Yeerks. I have a feeling they'll be coming back… and get some powerful morphs. Even if they aren't coming back, I have a feeling we're going to need them."

"Right, see ya." I said and put the phone back. I sighed, and wondered how the hell I would be able to get from Maine to Canada with no money and with the entire Soviet Union after me… well, not after ME per se, but I was sure as hell that any American would be shot on-sight.


	12. Getting to Halifax

Chapter Twelve

T'ing Leang

Shanghai, China

1945 Hours Local

When Natasha called me with news of the Soviet invasion of the United States, I was first shocked, then confused at why Natasha hadn't done anything about it yet. She told me that she didn't even know about this invasion, but I failed to see how. She was the daughter of the Premier of the entire Soviet Union, how could she NOT know? Well, that wasn't important now one way or another. Right now, we all had to get to Canada, and FAST.

After coming up with nothing as to how I could go to Canada, I went to the window of my small apartment and tried to think of something. Then, it hit me. A while back, I had heard of several people from Hong Kong going to Canada inside a cargo container from Hong Kong Harbour. Maybe I could do the same… of course, that meant that I might be discovered and sent back to China, but at the time, I didn't care. I went outside and managed to avoid the hellish traffic of the city until I got to the harbour. When I did, I asked around for a ship that was leaving for Canada. Most of the people there were telling me very nasty things which I won't repeat, but one of them pointed to one of the ships. He didn't speak Chinese very well (so I guessed he was from Vietnam or Japan) but I got the message. I thanked him, and went to find a safe spot to morph and hopefully catch the ship before it left the harbour. It took a few minutes, but eventually, I was finished, and I took off, flying hard to catch up with the ship, which was now already moving out of the harbour.

I barely made it onto the stern of the ship, and when I was on board, I collapsed from exhaustion. Once I managed to catch my breath, I demorphed and took cover between the larger cargo containers. I stayed there until nightfall, mostly because I didn't want to get caught, but secondly because I was getting hungry and with most of the crew asleep, I could hopefully raid the kitchen or something. Moving quietly, I squeezed out from in-between the containers and strode across the deck. The cold metal beneath my feet making me gasp the first time, but after that, I just moved. Making sure nobody saw me; I crept slowly into the ship, and went down several flights of stairs. I kept reading the signs as I went, hoping to see something like "Kitchen" or "Mess Hall" or something. The cold air was now chilling the thin clothes I wore and I started shivering. I avoided areas that had the few people who were pulling the night shift, and I eventually found a room with coffee, a microwave oven, a few loafs of bread, and various other foods.

I made sure not to turn on the lights while I worked at making my first meal onboard the ship, and by the time I was waiting for my coffee, I couldn't help but wonder if the smell from the beans would attract any curious noses. It didn't and when I gulped the hot beverage down, I revealed in the taste. This HAD to have been Columbian coffee, which is one of the best coffees in the world.

With the beverage down, and my stomach full, I put everything back exactly the way I found it, and I went to the bathroom to do my business. After getting some more water in me to counter the effects of the caffeine, I went back to my hiding place and tried to fall asleep. Daytime had to be coming soon, and I couldn't get caught.

This cycle of waiting and doing nightly raids had apparently attracted some attention by the time Vancouver harbour was in sight, but the sailors just figured that it was rats or something. When the ship was docked, I made my way out from between the containers and off the ship, the hard way. I went to the back of the ship, jumped, and dived into the water. Holding my breath, I swam the rest of the way into Canada. When I made my way ashore fairly close to the harbour, I was even more exhausted, but I wasn't safe yet. After I went into Vancouver itself, I tried to find a place where I could lay low and hopefully regain my energy.

I found it soon after wandering through the city: the Chinese Embassy. I went in to it, got some decent food, clothes, cash (Canadian dollars, naturally), and rest. Once I was well-rested the next day, I got a map of the city from the people there, and I deemed myself ready to leave. I found the train station for the trans-continental railroad, and asked for directions to there. When I did get there, I paid for my ticket on the next train to Nova Scotia and waited until the train came in.

When it did, I took some more much-needed rest. In fact, I'm pretty sure I slept the whole way to Nova Scotia because when I was waking up, a stewardess was saying: "Excuse me miss, but we're here."

Groggily, I woke up, got what little stuff I had with me, and left. I felt much better when I saw Alexis standing on the platform. Without thinking, I ran towards her and hugged her. "It's so good to see you again, Alexis."

I let up on my grip with her, and she smiled. "Same with you, Leang. How'd you get here, anyways?"

"You don't want to know," I said simply.

"Oh, come on! I mean it's not like you swam across the entire Pacific Ocean and crossed this country on foot, did you?"

I laughed despite myself. "Actually, it was something like that," and I told her exactly what happened with me adventure to get here. When I was finished, Alexis chuckled.

"And I thought I had problems getting here, did you see Natasha or Kassad on your way here?"

I shook my head. "I was asleep for the entire train ride. Sorry."

She 'hmm'ed and we went into the city. After looking around for a couple of hours, and finding nobody that either of us recognized, I suggested that we go to one of the theatres. Apparently, a Comedy Festival, as the Canadians called it, was happening now, and I thought it would be a good idea to go there and relax for a bit.

Alexis agreed with me, and we went into downtown. Once we were at the theatre to get tickets for the whole week, I spotted a Soviet Commando. I nudged Alexis' shoulder, and pointed to the Commando. She nodded, and we slipped in for a closer look. There wasn't just the one Commando, but a whole team of them, all centred around one young woman.

It took a few seconds for me to recognize her, having not seen her in years, but when I did, I yelled out: "Natasha! Over here!" waving my arms as I did so. Natasha looked around confused at who was calling her name, especially in English, and when she saw us, she waved and smiled. She said something to her bodyguards, and they went to a farther distance away, but they were still close enough to her to prevent us from trying anything.

I looked at her confused, and she shrugged. "I told my father that this war of his was too stressful for me, and that Halifax was having a comedy festival. He let me go here, but I have to be back in Moscow by the end of the week, and he also sent several guards to cover me so I don't get kidnapped like last time."

I nodded, and Alexis gave her a look. "And your dad just let you go, even though there's a war on right next door?"

Natasha shrugged again. "I guess it's because Canada's neutral in this war, just like every other Allied country. In fact, my father doesn't seem to have any problems with them. He says that it was the Americans that destroyed us in the previous war."

It didn't make sense to me, but I decided not to push it. Eventually, we all got our tickets to the comedy festival and Natasha went back to her hotel. Alexis and I had to find a different hotel and check in there. That'd be tough, but not impossible. Besides, if worse came to worse, we could always break into a room as birds.

While we'd only use that option as a last resort, it was still there. Fortunately, we did manage to find a room and when we had settled down into it, I wound up collapsing on the bed. I still needed some rest.

When I woke up again, it was the middle of the night and I swore softly. My biological clock was thrown out of whack and it would be a while before it was back to normal. Alexis was sleeping on the bed next to me and I tried to go back to sleep. It didn't work, so I wound up staring at the ceiling before sleep finally caught up with me again.

When I woke up again, Alexis was getting out a bowl of cereal for breakfast. Groggily, I got up and went to join her, when I heard a tap coming from the window. I looked over and saw that a hawk of some kind was sitting there. It looked at me for a while, then I heard: _Well, Leang? Are you going to let me in, or would you rather I try to force my way in through the front door? _

I snapped awake instantly, ran to the window and opened it for Natasha. When she was inside and demorphed, I asked: "Did you have any problems getting away from your security guards?"

"Less then some," she replied. "As far as they know I went to the bathroom, and didn't come out. To them, I simply vanished off the face of the earth. I wonder how the superior guard is taking that."

I laughed, and Alexis came in to see who I was talking to. When she saw Natasha, she broke into a smile. "Goddamn, it's good to see you again 'Tash."

"Same with you, Alexis. So, has anyone found Kassad yet?"

Alexis and I shook our heads. Who knew where that guy was at ANY given time? Anyways, I wondered what we'd do now. It seemed best that we should lay low in Canada until this new war died down, but who knew how long that would be? And besides, the yeerks might already be planning another offensive. It was pretty clear what we needed to do: Find Kassad and see if he heard anything from his underground contacts. In the meantime, we needed to possibly find and recruit anybody new that we could find.

I turned to Natasha. "You DID bring the morphing cube with you, right?"

She nodded. "Da, but there could be a problem with that: I left it with my security guards so somebody else will have to go in and get it. I'll wait here, because if any one of those guards sees me, they'll grab me on-sight."

I nodded. "I'll go get it. Besides, I think I'll have an easier time with it anyways seeing as how I have more morphs then you do."

Alexis and Natasha nodded. I got the directions to the hotel Natasha was staying in, and left. When I got close to the building, I saw almost all of the security guards crawling around the outside; their mirrored sunglasses reflecting in the movements of the other one keeping a sharp eye out for the Premier's daughter.

I managed to slip into the hotel easily enough. The guards attention was focused on the search for Natasha, so they weren't interested in one Chinese girl looking around. I went up to Natasha's room, and tried the door. It was locked, so I went to plan B. I had acquired some various insect morphs when I was back in China, so I could use one of those to slip under the door. After finding a nice utility closet to hide in, I began morphing into a cockroach. (Yes, we have them in China too.) After running along on the ground for a bit of time, I managed to get to the door and slip under it. I demorphed and to my relief, nobody was in the room.

I laughed. "This is almost too easy!" I said aloud.

I found the cube hidden amongst Natasha's luggage and I pulled it out. I bit my lip when I realised my dilemma. _So much for the easy part._ I thought. _How am I going to get this thing out of here? _

Seeing no other viable option, I went to the window, and threw the cube down into what looked like a dumpster. My aim was a little off, and I think it hit the edge before bouncing off and landing in a pile of old newspaper. I made a face, and shrugged. _Hell, go with what works,_ I thought. Now it was just a matter of getting down there and getting the cube back to my hotel room…

Well, first things first: I morphed into the eagle I had and flew down to where the cube landed. After digging for it, I perched on top of it, and grabbed hold of it with my talons. After I managed to hook it, I made sure I wasn't going to let go of it, and took off. Of course, that might have looked weird to anybody watching me from below, but then again, I was flying pretty high up. I was doing that because partly A: it was fun, and B: so I could easily dive down and land on the roof of my own hotel. After I did that, I dropped the cube onto the balcony and landed.

After I demorphed, I tossed the cube to Natasha who was sitting on a couch in front of the TV in the room, watching an update on the war. It was obvious why she didn't go out: with all the guards combing the city for her, she couldn't step outside without being morphed. After Natasha caught the cube, she said: "so, what do you want to do now? Go to the comedy festival?"

Alexis and I shrugged and agreed. There wasn't much else to do anyways.


	13. The Attack begins again

Chapter thirteen

Prince Kassad

Halifax, Nova Scotia

0440 Hours Local

With all the panic going on over the Russian invasion force, it would be difficult for me to get to Alexis Alexander and get her out of the US, although, it certainly wasn't impossible. In fact, the only REAL difficulty I was going to have would be getting into the country. After a while of crossing countries, backtracking and even a couple of times where I deliberately went around in a circle, I finally made it to the US, but when I arrived in Maine, Alexis was nowhere to be found, even with the mafia contacts I had long ago made. My best guess is that she headed up north into Canada, so that's where I went next.

My first guess was Nova Scotia. Specifically, Halifax. It seemed to be the best choice. It wasn't that far away, and there was apparently a comedy festival going on there, so I tried there first. After crossing the border and making my way into the city, I waited until I saw anybody I recognized. I got my wish at around the second day after I went in. I saw Alexis going into a store, probably to get food or something from a store, so I followed her at a discrete distance. After a while, she went back into a hotel where I kept following her. It was easy enough to slip past the hotel security and when I got to her room, I stealthy opened the door.

As I was entering, something hard and metallic was swung close to my head, but then stopped. "Oh, it's you." I heard a Russian accented voice say.

After I stepped in, Natasha put the pan she was holding down and said: "Sorry about that, but I thought you were one of my security guards. They're looking for me since I slipped away from them."

"Ah," I said. "Well, I suppose you'll be interested to know that apparently, the yeerks are making a move again. Their central target is mostly the media. They're trying to capture Hollywood and use it to broadcast propaganda to lure people in for infestation."

"Any idea what their main front is this time?"

I shrugged. "Not really, but I have a pretty good idea. They're using this comedy festival as a cover to infest the comedians first, and then move out from there."

Natasha nodded. "This is going to be tricky then. But… I think I have a plan."

"Well, let's hear it," I said.

She shook her head, "not yet. We'd better wait until everyone's here."

I shrugged again, then said in Russian: "By the way, you're English is quite impressive."

She grinned. "I studied in Britain for a couple of years."

After Leang and Alexis got back from wherever they were, Natasha told us her plan. I had to admit, it was pretty bold. Not as insane as the last plan, but still… her plan was to let this part of the invasion go ahead as planned. After that, let them get into Hollywood, then take them all down in one swift stroke. That, and by letting this happen, the Soviets might do some of the work for us in their invasion. I was to follow some of the various comedians around and see where they went. Leang assured me that she could hack one of the US military communication satellites so we could always stay in touch.

After that, I left and began to contact my various connections. Since there were simply too many people to follow at one time, I'd have other people do that part of the job for me. Besides, with a combination of mafia, Black Market, and various other crime syndicates, doing this, they'd divert attention away from themselves during the Soviet invasion.

Once everything was in place, I went back to the hotel and rented out a room of my own. Once that was finished, I went back to where Natasha was holed up. After I went in, I said: "good news everyone, since there were too many people even for me to follow, I got several of my contacts to do that for me. With any luck, they might even capture a few of them and interrogate them. And Natasha, if you want, I could even 'take care of' those guards that you're hiding from."

Alexis looked at me with a trace of amusement in her eyes. "You're too good at this kind of thing, you know that right?"

"Well it works, doesn't it?"

She laughed, and Natasha said: "sure thing, Kassad. If you can get rid of those guys without harming them, I'll be grateful."

I grinned. "Talk about taking all the fun outta life. All right. I'll take them down for you."

"Thanks," she said. I left and went to do just that. Carefully, I started following one of the guards until he stopped. I struck, hard and fast, lunging out from my hiding place and knocking him over the head with an empty beer bottle I found. He slumped to the ground, and I hid him in a fairly safe place.

After that, I kept doing that, until I got to the head guard. After I found him, I snuck up on him and grabbed him from behind.

"Hello," I said. "You're going to stop looking for Natasha Romanov and go back to the Soviet Union. You're going to tell your Premier that you failed to keep her safe, and hopefully, you'll only be let of with a major demotion. If you stay here in Halifax, I will kill you. Nod if you understand."

He tried to protest, but I cut him off. "Don't try arguing with me. If you do, I will kill you." He nodded after a while, and I knocked him out. After he fell to the ground, I gave him the locations of all his underlings, and money for a plane ticket back to Russia.

When I got back to the hotel, I walked in and told Natasha the good news. She smiled and said: "Thanks, Kassad. Looks like I can finally go outside and enjoy myself again." She went into another room, got dressed and left, probably on her way to that comedy festival that was going on. Seeing nothing that was of importance at the moment, I went outside and went to see if I could find anything out of the ordinary.

T'ing Leang

After Kassad came back and let us know that Natasha was safe now, the three of us went to one of the many comedy shows that were playing. We all went there, although Kassad went alone. He said he'd meet us in the theatre although with all his contacts and everything else, I wondered how exactly he'd do that. The two of us walked on for a while, and eventually, we came to the theatre. Showing our tickets that were good for the whole duration of the festival, we were allowed in and after a while of trying to find a good seat, we eventually got to the front row, centre.

When the show began, we lost all track of time. Sometimes we were offended, sometimes we didn't get the jokes, and other times we were laughing hysterically. By the time was over a couple of hours later, I was feeling much better about our predicament and the war that was going on. When we left the theatre and saw Kassad again, we were still laughing.

"Kassad!" I yelled when I saw him. "Where were you!? You missed the whole show!"

Kassad looked grim at that. "I was checking something out. They're back again; the yeerks."

Natasha shuddered at the memory of that, Alexis was stunned, and I was the only one able to voice my opinion. "How do you know?"

He shook his head. "It's not safe here. Let's go back to the hotel."

Not wanting to be left alone with those slugs again, Natasha followed Kassad back to the hotel and when we were back in our room, she said: "So what's going on? I thought we killed them! Without their pool, they'd starve!"

Kassad nodded grimly. "That's what I thought too… although they must have gone somewhere else when the pool was destroyed. From what I managed to find out, this new attack is pretty subtle, although it could be EXTREAMLY dangerous if it's not stopped immediately."

"What IS there plan?" Alexis prompted.

"Their plan seems to be manipulation of the media. First, they intend to take over the various people here at that comedy festival, that's why I didn't show up, and then slowly take over all of Hollywood, and then spread outward from there."

"But the war," Natasha said. "Hollywood would be one of the first targets on my father's list to take. They probably have thousands of people already taken over in the Kremlin, don't they realise that their plan is suicide?"

Kassad shook his head. "Apparently not. They don't have anybody inside the Kremlin yet, and I don't think they will."

"What do you mean?" Alexis asked, confused. "I thought those dammed slugs could go everywhere and be nearly undetectable. How could they not manage to infiltrate the Kremlin?"

Everyone looked at Natasha who was now slumped in a chair. She was the Premier's daughter, so we all thought she had something to say on the matter.

"I don't know… maybe my father simply didn't allow any of them into the Kremlin because of some other problem they had, maybe it was because Yuri… wait a minute!" she yelled suddenly. "That's it!"

"What's it?" I asked, confused.

"I know why the yeerks don't have anyone in the Kremlin! Yuri! My father's advisor! Remember how I told you that he could seem to find me no matter what form I was in and how I thought he was a psychic? He knows what the yeerks are and he's doing something to kill them, or remove them, or something! And with the attack on Hollywood, that'll cause everything they'll simply fall apart when the soviet psi-corps get in."

I saw a smile growing across Alexis' face, and then said: "and if I'm not mistaken, Natasha, when you called me, you said that Yuri was thinking about developing genetic research?"

She nodded, slowly, and then clicked in. if a psychic could locate the Yeerks, then maybe, just maybe, we could somehow use that to our advantage.


End file.
